


Facing the Past

by Lora_Blackmane



Series: Hurt, but Healing AU [2]
Category: LEGO Monkie Kid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, MK Wukong shippers try and touch this and I'll break y'alls fingers, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26996359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lora_Blackmane/pseuds/Lora_Blackmane
Summary: Macaque returns to go after Sun Wukong's newest student... but soon the past catches up with him.
Series: Hurt, but Healing AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975849
Comments: 9
Kudos: 45





	Facing the Past

**Author's Note:**

> A follow up to my piece, "Finding Peace," which I hope y'all enjoy!

It had started off as any other day had. 

Long Xiaojiao had woken up, had breakfast, played some Monkey Mech before she and the Monkey King trained a bit while Qi Xiaotian was at a meeting. 

The day had been like any other day…

"Y'know I was _kinda_ hoping you'd _at least_ be a bit harder than the last kid Wukong had! But, it seems like you're just a kid with a heavy stick too… _well_ , you have a bit more street smarts than the last one so I guess you _are_ a bit better." 

So how had it gone so wrong?

* * *

Xiaojiao ran towards Wukong with a cry, bringing the staff down onto him. He quickly moved out of the way, causing her to miss and slam it into the floor of the cavern. She spun, trying to hit his side; but he grabbed the staff with his tail and ripped it out of her hands. The motion made her fly past him and hit the ground with a yelp. 

Wukong knelt down and picked Long Xiaojiao up from the floor, handing the staff back to her. "Nice, kiddo! You're making some great strides in your training."

Xiaojiao dusted herself off before she processed his words and turned on Wukong, sticking her face in his as she excitedly shouted, “You think so?!”

He let out a laugh as he gently pushed her away so he could walk, “Totally kiddo. It does make sense though - you _are_ getting trained… by me…”

His footsteps slowed as he spoke, until he came to a stop in front of the cavern’s entrance. Long Xiaojiao stopped as well, “Hey, Monkey King…? Is… is something wrong?”

He stayed silent for a moment, before sighing. Wukong pulled out ‘Sun’s bandana from his pocket, the little golden sun Xiaotian had sewn onto it a few weeks ago glittering in the sunlight from the entrance. 

“Sorry Xiaojiao… it’s just.” He looked back into the cavern, his eyes looking misty as he spoke, “It’s funny, I said something similar to Xiaotian just a few days before…”

Long Xiaojiao gently placed a hand on his shoulder, and let it rest there. When he pushed it away she quietly said, "How about we head back to town?"

“Yeah… yeah that sounds good, Xiaojiao.”

* * *

Wukong set her down next in the alley before jumping onto the balcony connected to Qi Xiaotian’s apartment and shifting into ‘Sun.’ 

She watched him go through the window before starting her walk back home, chuckling as she heard Qi Xiaotian joyously greet his furry friend and asking him about his adventure today as she pulled her phone out and started to walk home. 

The walk was calming, and allowed her to process what she had learned that day as she looked at puppy photos.

Halfway there though, someone interrupted her thoughts. " _Sooo…_ you're Sun Wukong's newest kid, huh?" 

"Hmm?" Long Xiaojiao looked up from her phone and turned towards the voice.

A hooded figure was standing next to the entrance of an alleyway, grinning. She let out an uneasy laugh, asking her own question instead. "Um, I'm sorry - do I know you?"

The figure pushed themself off of the wall as they laughed. "Oh… I'm _certain_ you do. _But,_ it never hurts to introduce yourself, right? Just so you know for sure who beat you up too…" 

The hooded figure held up a hand, making Long Xiaojiao take a step back and shove her staff forward, and quickly a burst of purple energy appeared in it. His shadow stood up behind him, grabbing onto his shoulders as it looked her over. "Macaque. The Six-Eared Macaque, actually." 

He gripped the ball of energy before running forward, but Long Xiaojiao was ready and quickly jumped out of the way. She spun and was ready to try to swing the staff into his side, when she noticed his tail was going for her leg. 

Long Xiaojiao adjusted the course of her staff so it slammed his tail into the concrete, causing him to let out a pained growl.

Then he smiled. 

A shadow came up from underneath her and grabbed her, throwing her into the alley. 

She rolled when she hit the ground for just a moment, then found her footing… only to be taken down by a gut punch from Macaque.

The battle only devolved from there for her. 

Several shadows stood up and started attacking her, hitting her all at once. She attempted to block their hits with her staff, but they'd teleport to an area she wasn't blocking. She tried to use her speed to dodge, but they'd position themselves so if one missed another would get her.

Within minutes Long Xiaojiao was covered in bruises, breathing heavily. Macaque let out a laugh, "Face it, you can't beat me kid!" 

As much as she _hated_ to acknowledge it… he was right. Even with all the training she had been doing, Macaque was too strong for her to take on. If she could summon clones maybe she could win, but she couldn't yet. 

The only thing she could do was try to escape. 

Realizing this she shoved the staff into the ground and used her one good hand to hold onto it as it shot away. 

She made it to the street when she heard his voice. 

" _Nooo~ you don't!_ " He kicked a trash can and it hit her in the back. She fell to the ground with a cry, her body roughly sliding against the asphalt. 

He leisurely walked over to where she had fallen as she sat up, looking at his claws. "Y'know, I was _kinda_ hoping you'd _at least_ be a bit harder than the last kid Wukong had! But, it seems like you're just a kid with a heavy stick too… _well_ , you have a bit more street smarts than the last one so I guess you _are_ a bit better."

She let her sight move around the area, hoping to see if the clone she knew the Monkey King still had following her would notice this. Macaque caught the movement and laughed, leaning down till he was next to her ear. “No one is coming to help you, kiddo. I already got rid of your _… friend.”_

A hand went into his pocket… and a handful of peach colored fur fell out of the dark copycat’s hands.

Long Xiaojiao felt her breath hasten in her chest. 

Macaque stood over her with a maniacal smile, his arm raising up to deliver a final hit- 

A pair of scissors hit him in the shoulder, grazing it. 

It didn't seem to do anything more than annoy Macaque, but it allowed Long Xiaojiao to move a bit away. 

They both turned towards where the scissors came from… and saw someone neither of them expected. 

"Xiaotian?" 

"Xiaotian, _buddy~_. How ya been ki-."

"Shut up." His hand gripped harder onto the strap of his bag. " _Just_ \- **_just…_** **_SHUT UP!"_**

He pulled out a pencil from his bag and threw it at Macaque, pissing the shapeshifter off more.

He moved his focus to the other kid, appearing in his face. He grabbed Qi Xiaotian’s head and slammed it into the ground - the kid’s scream of pain echoed through the area. “Xiaotian!”

“I have to admit - I’m impressed by your… _heroism?_ **_Audacity?!_ ** Honestly I don’t know what to call ya.” The kid’s breath became shaky, the canister his clear tubes were connected to laid a few feet away - shattered. He tried desperately to remove Macaque’s hand from his face. 

“What even _was_ your plan, kid?!” He let out a laugh, “I _know_ you can’t pick up the staff. Hell, you look like a weak _wind_ would blow you over.”

Xiaotian weakly shoved at Macaque’s hand again once before it stilled. Macaque was about to mock him again… when his voice weakly came out, "You're… you're right. I can't pick it up." 

His hand moved to his bag, pulling out a small cylinder and sprayed something from it into Macaque's eyes, causing him to screech and cover them. He shot himself away from Qi Xiaotian, and towards a fire hydrant that had broken in the battle, attempting to clean the stuff out of his eyes. Xiaotian stood up on shaky legs, his voice coming out in ragged breaths as he spoke. "I… I'm not - not the Monkie Kid anymore. But I can still protect… myself from **_you_ **. And y'wanna know… something Macaque?"

Qi Xiaotian's hand came up to his head and he ripped out a portion of his hair. "I may not have… not have many powers left… but these guys do." 

He sucked in an unstable breath, then blew the hair towards Macaque. 

In a blast of golden light a clone appeared, giving Macaque a malicious smile when his eyes fell on his blinded form.

The clone ran past Xiaojiao, grabbing the staff and spinning around to slam it into Macaque's skull. 

He couldn’t move fast enough to dodge the attack, still recovering from the attack on his eyes. The clone took advantage of that to land a few more blows onto him, while another clone Xiaotian made ran over to Long Xiaojiao and helped her up. 

He gave her a smile, which she returned, then ran over and joined his brother in fighting the no longer blind Macaque. She hesitated for just a second… before summoning her family's jade blade and joining in. 

Together the trio gave Macaque a fight, making up for the others blind areas as they delivered blow after blow. 

A shadow suddenly came out before the clone without a weapon could deliver another punch, hitting him in the chest with enough force he vanished. 

Another clone appeared after that one vanished, slamming through the shade and grabbing onto Macaque. 

And another. 

And another, until he was covered. 

She and the clone with the staff jumped up, bringing their weapons down onto his head- 

" **_THAT'S IT_ **!" Macaque unleashed a wave of energy, throwing Long Xiaojiao and Qi Xiaotian's clone away from him. The group slammed into the ground hard enough that the clones immediately vanished into a cloud of light and Long Xiaojiao was left within a large crater. She let out a weak groan as she tried to get up, only to have a purple, barbed staff shoved into her chest. 

Macaque leveled a glare at her, but with how disheveled he was, how he trembled and took in deep breaths... he didn't look as terrifying as he did earlier. He spoke in a low tone, "I'm done acting nice, **kid** . Once I'm done with **_you_ **, I'm going to find and finish your little friend like I should have done months ago-!"

A broken, metal canister slammed into his skull - cutting off his speech.

He snapped towards the clone, grabbing it’s head and crushing it.

Then his attention turned to Qi Xiaotian, sitting against a store’s wall behind him. “You…”

He took a few steps towards the kid. “ _You_ , have been **_nothing_ ** but a stupid little thorn in my side today!" His hands slammed into the bricks next to Qi Xiaotian, causing the boy to flinch. " _You know what happens to little thorns, kid_?!” 

He summoned a shadowy blade. "They get _cut_ out."

Many things happened when he summoned it.

Long Xiaojiao stumbled as she got up. 

Her foot hit the staff. 

She grabbed it with unstable hands, before shoving it into the broken street under her. 

And then she screamed. "Xiaotian - your hand!"

His hand went up upon her shout.

She grabbed it as she flew past, and the shadow blade barely missed his head, hitting his right shoulder instead. 

Qi Xiaotian cried out, clutching harder to Long Xiaojiao's arm as his eyes landed back onto Macaque. Long Xiaojiao pulled him closer so he couldn't see him and let out a breathless laugh as they got further away. 

But her relief died as a furry hand suddenly gripped to the end of the staff. 

Macaque pulled himself onto the staff, snarling as he climbed closer and closer.

Qi Xiaotian started to panic, kicking at him in a desperate attempt to get him off. 

That didn't work, in fact it only made it worse. Because Macaque grabbed onto his leg and pulled both of them off of the staff. The three of them fell to the ground, the force knocking Qi Xiaotian out and hurting Long Xiaojiao's head. Macaque let out a cackle as he got up, edging closer to the kids. 

Long Xiaojiao tried to call the staff back, but it stayed a few feet away. 

Macaque got closer, raising his fist up to hit them.

Long Xiaojiao held Qi Xiaotian's unconscious body close to her, closing her eyes as his fist got closer. 

It never landed though. "That's **_enough_ ** out of you." 

Long Xiaojiao opened her eyes and turned towards the voice. 

Wukong stood in front of him, baring his teeth at Macaque.

Long Xiaojiao let out an unsteady sigh of relief when her eyes landed on him. " _Monkey King_." 

Macaque glared at Wukong as he got up, rubbing his face with the back of his hand. Then he smiled, "Don't worry, _buddy_. I'm going."

He held his hands up as he walked into his shadow, but he wasn't done speaking yet. "This isn't the _last_ time you've seen me though, little dragon monkey." 

And with those parting words he vanished completely.

Wukong stayed in a defensive stance for a few moments, then turned towards Qi Xiaotian once he was sure Macaque had left. He pulled out an oxygen concentrator and put the mask connected to it onto the unconscious kid. It wasn't as good as his usual canister and tubing, since the concentrator was meant more for when he was calmly asleep, but it'd do. He winced when he noticed the shoulder of his jacket slowly turning red, pulling it away to survey the damage. It didn't seem too deep from what Long Xiaojiao could see, and from how Wukong reacted hopefully she was right. He pulled out some bandages and covered the wound with a few layers of them until he was satisfied with the results. 

Then he turned to Long Xiaojiao, gently bandaging some of her worst injuries as well. She turned to look at Qi Xiaotian as he worked, noting how pale he was. "Is… he is going to be okay, right?"

"Yeah kiddo, he'll be fine. It might take him a moment to wake up though, this was a _pretty_ taxing event. For _both_ of you." 

Long Xiaojiao understood the underlying message behind his words and went silent again, allowing him to finish his work. Once he was satisfied he stood up and moved back to Qi Xiaotian, picking the kid up so he could carry him home. But as he steadied, Xiaojiao grabbed his arm and asked, "Can I carry him home?" 

Wukong almost didn't hand ~~his~~ the kid over, but when he looked into her eyes… "Do you think you'll be able to handle it? You just got into a tough battle, kiddo."

Her gaze hardened, and she put her arms out. "Yeah." 

That was that, then. He didn't let her carry him in her arms though. Instead he helped Xiaojiao settle Qi Xiaotian against her back, making sure she had a good handle on him before they started to walk. 

They only got a few steps away when the Monkey King stopped. 

"Oh right!" Wukong pulled Qi Xiaotian's phone out of his pocket, typing something into it. Xiaojiao cocked her head as she watched him, opening her mouth to ask why he had Xiaotian's phone-. 

A cheerful music flooded the wrecked area. Wukong crouched down, turning his head in different directions before speeding off towards the alleyway Macaque came from. 

He came back with her phone in his hand, a crack running down the screen. "Figured you'd _probably_ want that back, and well since it helped us find you-" 

"It did?" 

"Yeah… you meant to call Xiaotian right?" 

Long Xiaojiao looked down at the phone in her hand, putting the passcode in with trained ease and going to the call app. 

'Call Logs: Qi Xiaotian - 6:50 PM, 01:23:56'

She had never been more grateful for an accidental call in her life. 

Xiaojiao put it in her pocket, and resettled Xiaotian so they could continue their walk to his apartment. 

* * *

After a bit Qi Xiaotian woke up. His eyes surveyed the area until they landed on Wukong. In a weak whisper he called out, "Monkey… Monkey King?" 

Both Wukong and Long Xiaojiao jolted when he spoke before turning towards him. " _Hey,_ kid. Go… go back to sleep, okay? You suffered some tough blows earlier."

He blinked before nodding and settling back against Long Xiaojiao's shoulder. The two let out a sigh before returning back to their conversation… only for Qi Xiaotian to interrupt him again. “Hey… hey Monkey King? Where... did you get… get that scarf?”

“Oh...” He quickly tried to come up with a good excuse, “Your cat... _gave_ it to me to tell me you were in trouble! Yeah, I just tied it around my neck so I wouldn’t lose it. And before you ask he also gave me your weird device! So anyway, here his scarf back kid.”

He shoved it into the kids hands, but not with enough force to hurt him. The kid looked at the scarf for a second, and the two worried Wukong’s cover was blown for a moment before the kid smiled at him, “That was really… really smart of Sun! He’s an - an amazing cat, huh?”

Xiaojiao gave him a smile (and Wukong a knowing smirk) as she shifted her grasp on him and they continued their walk back to his home. “Yeah Xiaotian, he totally is.”


End file.
